Oh, make it all a nightmare!
The reformists are about to
make their exits, irrevocably, and Khatami with them, and the rest
of
us did, for all intents and purposes, NOTHING
July 26, 2004
iranian.com
With much anticipation it happened
a few months ago. I planned to tell you about it at the time, but
I couldn't. I hope you forgive me. I think the main reason I couldn't
communicate it with you at the time was because I needed to first
process it myself. Not that I have completely come to terms with
it, but at least now I can talk about it. I know I was not straight
forward with you. I should have been, I know.
Please stop your nagging, it's really annoying when you do that.
I said I'm sorry. Come here, you big slug. Give me a hug. Come
on... aah, that's better.
There, there. I promise not to do it again. I promise. This isn't
going to be easy for me, you know. There's no gentle way to say
it. So, here it is. Please try to remain calm and try to understand
what happened. All I expect from you is to try and not get emotional,
alright? So, without further ado:
The reformists have been defeated.
I'm sorry. I know what hearing this does to you. They lost the
parliamentary elections back in February, and soon the smiley seyyed
will be leaving office as well. They're all gone into oblivion,
end of story.
It sounds so bleak, a sentence that should never be said: The
reformists have lost. But it's the truth and one should always
be prepared to accept the truth. Yes, I've had the same thoughts,
over and over, as you are having now. Yes, the fact that most of
their candidates were vetted out by the woolly men in the Council
of Guardians is senseless and baffling and self-destructive of
the Islamists. I wish I had more comfort to give. Sometimes things
happen that we simply can't explain.
There's no rhyme or reason to it. I don't want to think about
it, and yet somehow I can't stop. No politician in the Islamic
Republic knows how to help the regime survive better than the reformists.
After the fall of the Taliban, the Islamic regime has become one
of the most hated in the world, and so the top leader decides to,
err, let the reformists go? Am I missing something here?
The upsetting fact remains that the reformists are about to take
their leave. I keep going over it. I can't help myself. I'm numb.
The reformists. Are about to. Be thrown out of. The Islamic regime.
I mean, everyone knew Mohammad Khatami was thinking of resigning.
That rumor had been around for months, or even years. Ditto about
the reformists in general.
But thinking of leaving and actually leaving are two different
things. As the candidates' credentials were being rejected (chief
among them Khatami's brother and Nabavi and some of the regime's
elite) during the funniest episode of the recent Iranian history,
aka the Majles sit-in ) the finality of it sank in with the spectators: "This
is it. They're leaving. No more reformist/conservative duality.
The purification is complete. The regime is solidifying."
Reformist
fans began to sob. Student activists split off and declared autonomy.
They called for a democratic revolution. Ehsan Naraghi, a giant
of an intellectual, sat there on the steps of the Majles building
with his shoulders just heaving. Comedian Ebrahim Nabavi lost
his humor and started to emit gibberish. He and writer Massoud
Behnood
completely lost it when they pleaded with the public to actually
get out and vote. It had come to this.
 A day or two later, people were dancing and celebrating. Nobody
had been able to believe it, and now that it was happening, they
needed to tell the entire world. A reformist analyst, who won't
let me use his name, due to grief, had his kids stencil "Reformists
Lost the Election" on the front of his VW minivan, specifying
that the letters be reversed and backward so that drivers in cars
up ahead could read it and yield the road. Hazard lights flashing,
he roared away into the Tehran night.
As for me, I only wanted
to go off somewhere by myself and curl into a ball. Instead I
ended up having tea with one of the republicans in Diaspora. You
know
the kind I'm referring to. An old Fedayeen leftist turned secular,
who lives in Europe but gives quasi support to the regime. I
agreed to pay the bill after he promised to reveal juicy secrets
pertaining
to the conservative agenda behind their recent maneuvers. When
we realized how much we had in common politically, we talked
of other matters, trying to lift one another's spirits, pretending
all the while that the reformists weren't failing miserably.
Over time, I would learn that there are twelve stages a person
goes through when the reformists leave the power structure in the
Islamic Republic. The first is shock. The second is rage. The third
is denial. The fourth is more rage. I forget the stages after that,
because I'm still partly in shock.
 During the rage period, it is
quite natural to put a lot of blame on Khamenei, the leader of
the faceless, soulless regime, who indeed has much to answer
to. Obviously, Khamenei must be a disturbed person to have let
things
deteriorate
to such degree. But simply blaming Khamenei and letting
go at that overlooks deeper and more systemic problems. Maybe
one day we can address those issues together.
Strangely enough, I'm starting to feel better now. Confronting
the sentence "The reformists have been defeated," deprives
it of some of its primal power to terrify. I repeat it out loud,
in my own voice, calmly: "The reformists have been defeated." And
you see? The words are spoken, yet the earth continues to turn.
No bolt of lightening struck me dead. The sun still shines.
Oh,
hell! Who am I kidding? I try to put on a brave face and then
it falls apart. Why was this defeat allowed to occur? Why did nobody
stop those bullies in the Council of Guardians? Why didn't anyone
try to talk some sense into Khamenei? And what about the rest
of
us? Why did we just sit idly by? The reformists are about to
make their exits, irrevocably, and Khatami with them, and the rest
of
us did, for all intents and purposes, NOTHING.
 The reformists say they are going to stay the course and build
a civil movement, which is fine, but again I ask the question:
Why? What greater purpose is served by men and women who understand
reform going into building political movements, something in which,
frankly, any reasonably experienced political activist can succeed?
I know I should accept what can't be changed, but I am not able
to, and I refuse to. "The reformists have been defeated." Make
it not true.
.................... Say
goodbye to spam!
*
*
|
